Q&A: 'I just fell in love with them' explains labyrinth expert ahead of World Labyrinth Day
CBC News | Posted: May 4, 2024 9:00 AM | Last Updated: May 4
People around the globe are celebrating labyrinths on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Labyrinths are proven tools for improving body, mind and spirit with a long history around the world. To mark World Labyrinth Day on Saturday, London Morning Host Andrew Brown spoke to a man who loves labyrinths and understands why they are a tool for mindfulness. He also knows where to find them in London!
Dr. Stephen Yeo is a spiritual care practitioner at St. Joseph's Southwest Centre for Forensic Mental Health and a researcher with the Lawson Health Research Institute.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Andrew Brown (AB): So let's just clarify this right off the bat. What is a labyrinth?
Stephen Yeo (SY): Labyrinth is a form of walking meditation. It's ancient and modern in its application.
AB: What would you say then, if we compared it to a maze? What's the difference between a labyrinth and an amaze?
SY: Easy. Labyrinths have no dead ends. There's no trickery to walking a Labyrinth.
AB: OK, so you don't get lost. But you don't always find yourself on the right path?
SY: You might feel that you don't know where you are on the path, but it will always take you somewhere and you will never get lost in it.
AB: For someone who's listening, who has never experienced a labyrinth, what's it like?
SY: It can be calming. It can help with the sense of peace. It can sometimes mirror back to us a sense that we're all on a journey, you know, moving somewhere. And we might not like where we are in that journey, but, you know, how do we keep moving? How do we draw strength from that?
AB: I see you have a labyrinth in front of you now that you brought into the studio. Could you describe it for us?
SY: Sure. What I have in front of me is a wooden finger-traceable labyrinth with a couple of different labyrinth templates on it. And you know, if you're not able to get out and actually walk a labyrinth, or if you have some physical challenges that prevent you from doing so, you can find yourself tracing your finger through the pathways that are made available for you on this labyrinth. Research has shown us that it has much of the same calming, peaceful feelings of connectedness.
AB: What do you get out of it when you use the finger-traceable labyrinth?
SY: It's really grounding. It's hard to explain. You have to experience it. But it can be grounding in the same way that one might try some breathing exercises to just find a place of centre or quiet. You just start walking this, you know, I mean with your finger. But it's rather melodic and it takes you into that space of calm.
AB: What drew you to labyrinths?
SY: Well, it was almost 3 decades ago, and I was really trying to search for where the next aspect of my life would go, the next season, and I basically serendipitously discovered one. It was a grass labyrinth. I didn't know really what it was, but I started walking it and it just had this way of drawing me to a bigger sense of purpose and my journey and the world around me. And then I started to research more about them and realized that they were a thing and have been a thing for a few thousand years. And then I just fell in love with them.
AB: Do we know how far back in history they do go?
SY: I think one of the earliest labyrinth templates is around 1,200 BC, so they go back a ways.
AB: If anyone wants to walk one in London, are there labyrinths in London?
SY: So there's labyrinthlocator.com. It's a good place to start. There was one at Brescia College and one at the Mount. There are some at hospitals [including at Parkwood].
AB: How can people take part in World Labyrinth Day on Saturday?
SY: I think at any point in time, if they want to just be mindful that tomorrow is World Labyrinth Day, find a way to walk or trace a labyrinth. But otherwise, in whatever way they can be mindful of their own journey and how labyrinths mirror that back to us, that would be probably enough.